Re-opening Schools & Opportunities for the Whole Child

By Jess Lawrence, Director of Cairn Guidance

We have no idea when re-opening will happen, however, let us consider these points…

For almost thirty years, the school health/whole child community has advocated for schools to focus on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs over Bloom’s Taxonomy. This means that we take our students’ needs (basic survival & safety needs, as well as health needs) over academic achievement and test scores. I think most educators agree, even most education leaders. However, when the accountability systems for our education leaders, teachers and students is focused on high stakes testing, the whole child isn’t the priority. Unfortunately our system puts education leaders in a tough place.

I’ve worked in this field for about twenty years and I can share multiple success stories of schools, districts and State Departments of Education prioritizing the whole child. I have worked with districts that ensured the school nurse to student ratio is feasible/appropriate, or a school that added a full time school counselor, social worker and school psychologist to their staffing. I’ve worked with districts that have revised school policy to eliminate removing recess as punishment or inhibiting the use of food as a reward. The list goes on. However, focusing on the whole child isn’t widespread nor is it consistent.

There is so much unknown right now living during a pandemic. That is the hardest part for most of us. When we re-open, how we re-open, what it means, what mental health state we’ll all be in… If we had some of these answers, it would surely help. But, we don’t. So- I offer some initial thoughts about opportunities to consider.

I suggest schools reopen with the whole child in mind. There are extreme education & health disparities in our country. Consider how schools may implement processes, policies, structures and programs to help eliminate the inequities over time. Below are a few suggestions we might consider now. In my next blog, I’ll suggest what we might put in place in 5-10 years from now.

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“What supports will be in place for our young people?”

The Summer Learning Retention Dip will be Increased: My assumption is that there will be an expectation, almost pressure, that teachers improve student achievement as a result in the ‘summer slide’ or ‘summer dip’ in learning retention as we do every summer. The reality is that the dip will be greater this year. Students coming back in the fall (if that is when we re-open) will be behind. Will there continue to be pressures placed on leaders and teachers to get students to a level of proficiency based on tests? My suggestion is that we don’t put pressure on how to ‘catch up’ students. I suggest we teach, listen, care and do our best to educate without putting unreasonable expectations in the hands of educators. If we don’t, we might see a mass exodus of teachers leaving their jobs. This is a message to our education leaders at the national level, which trickles down to the local.

Focus on School Employee Wellness & Support: We have to take care of our educators. They might not come back. Many are experiencing their own trauma (loss of a loved one to COVID, fear of their students’ home-life/safety while not in school, fear of education accountability pressures once back in school, stress of teaching online or developing lesson plans for distance learning, experiencing every thing on this list and being a parent with their own children at home). School employee wellness has gained momentum over the past 15 years as a way to: retain educators, increase presenteeism, increase student outcomes. OEA Choice Trust has amazing resources around this topic (see resources here) and even grants money to Oregon schools working specifically on school employee wellness. Retaining staff is a cost savings and the return on investment is high. We have the opportunity to use professional development to teach educators the impact of hunger, trauma, anxiety, loneliness and loss in the classroom. Teachers aren’t equipped to handle that on their own, which is why I will discuss the important of a comprehensive mental health plan in our 5-10 year goals. Educators have one of the most important jobs in the world. We have to start sending them the message that we care about them, by providing reasonable expectations of them and supporting their own health; be it physical, mental or emotional.

Ensure a Comprehensive Mental Health Support Plan is in place: We can assume the funding of school will look different (decreased). Somehow putting a mental health support plan in place would be worth the return on investment. How can we leverage our current school social workers, counselors & psychologists? This was needed prior to COVID-19. Now, it’s even more essential. The levels of anxiety high school students were facing prior a pandemic was alarming. Just look at Psychology Today articles, CDC data and the PEW Charitable Trust trend data. Anxiety was a key indicator to a drop in education achievement and success prior to 2020. I only see this increasing. What supports will be in place for our young people?